Coot chicks at different stages of growth, all seen on the same morning. From different nests on the shores of the island on the eastern lobe of the lake at West Park: the area which seems to be the prime location for coot nests.
On warm sunny days, pigeons sometimes squat down, spread their wings, and take the rays. This time, a crowd of the flock in West Park were spread out on a lawn area which was covered in flowering daisies. The birds were even all aligned, like sunbathers at a popular beach resort.
Back in 2011, Wightwick Manor held some sort of open day on a June weekend (National Trust properties usually have them one weekend in September during World Heritage week). We took advantage to have a good look around the grounds.
As we walked around the pond, this dragonfly was climbing a leaf as it emerged from its aquatic juvenile stage, almost ready to take to the wing as an adult.
One of the fields at the corner of the Himley crossroads had a spectacular display of poppies back at this time in 2010. This picture was taken standing by the fence, but the view was even more impressive from the top deck of the Wolverhampton – Stourbridge bus.
A pair of swans with their five cygnets on the lake at West Park. The cygnets were still cute in their juvenile down, but had already begun to grow somewhat.
Two of them were already bold enough to set off swimming on their own, away from the immediate protection of the mother. They seemed to be heading directly towards were we were standing on the bank, perhaps hoping for bread. As they got nearer, they veered off, then turned round and headed back to safety.
In the distance, I saw two coots. One had fluffy infant down, clearly a chick despite now being grown to adult size. The other was in silhouette. I assumed it was one of the parent birds. Coot adults invest a lot of parental care. They share brooding duties on the unhatched eggs, and both of them carry on feeding their chicks even when the young have grown to full size, and look like they should be able to (and indeed do) get their own food.
I moved somewhat nearer to try to get a better angle to picture them from. As I focussed the camera, the previously silhouetted bird dived. When it surfaced, vegetation in its beak, I could see that it too was a chick. Instead of eating the food itself, it immediately gave it to the other chick, passing it from beak to beak in the way a parent normally would.